Is there anyone who just eats normally?

[Peanutss]

I can't believe the amount of threads where the OP claims to eat only a boiled spinach shake for breakfast, plain cous cous for dinner and a salmon fillet with veg for tea. With of course, only an apple as a snack in between.

Is there anyone like me who just has a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, a meal deal for lunch and then whatever I can be arsed putting in the oven for tea? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm massively unhealthy in comparison to most or whether people are just making this up.

Beauty your food sounds so lush! (you had me at avocado for breakfast :D

I eat whatever I want but I m about 4 stone overweight. I was bulimic and anorexic for the best part of a decade though and I get obsesssive if I start counting cals/ww/sw etc. DD is 11, I ve been recovered since falling pregnant and the very last thing I want is for her to go through what I did. I want her to see me eating normally, I never moan about my size in front of her I never want her to think eating disorders are normal!

Ifnotnow My DD calls churros 'fried glue' I hate them! No, my downfall here is the Rjoca. It's so cheap too.

Children here never have sandwiches for lunch, not ever. They have '3 plates' first salad with a small bit of baguette, then protein with a carb and cooked vegetable. Then a bit of fresh fruit. On high days and holidays that will be tinned peaches with icecream

Siameasy Yep! that's me.

BTW I've lived in France and Italy. Children don'e have sandwiches for lunch (and nor do adults) only on picnics.

I don't understand why people feel the need to demonise smoothies and kale

Fruit smoothies taste nice but the way I see it, if you have a multi-fruit smoothie and I have an apple then we both score one portion and I don't have to wash up a smoothie maker.

And kale is simply not a foodstuff. I like most leafy veg, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, spring green, sprouts, etc... but nothing I do ever makes kale edible.

The only thing is, now days, people think overeating is normal. To me 'normal' would be eating a diet to be a normal or healthy weight.

Yes noone should obsess but I don't think confessing to eating junk is normal at all but just how we've become so accustomed to eating more than we should. Obviously it goes the other way too with people undereating. Healthy foods are more normal than manmade foods created by scientists to make us fat.

My family live abroad and I often find I lean towards healthier options when I am there. It's down to the heat for me. I couldn't think of anything worse than a chunky sandwich in 30 degree heat. I'd rather have something cold and refreshing like salad/fruit. But I just don't quite feel the same when I'm shivering in the minus 4 frost as it were this morning when I left for work.

Just to add I think for some 'normal' could be intuitive eating which means you listen to your body and should obsess less. However it goes out the window the more sugary or saturated the food as your body just doesn't feel full like foods grown naturally. Whereas before our bodies would tell us when to stop sugar ect makes us want more.

MarcieBluebell well yes of course, fresh food is of course more 'natural/normal' in the technical sense of the word.

What I meant by normal was not being so strict/restrictive with your diet. Although I've already pointed out several times I regret saying normal as it has fat too many possible meanings in this context.

It is much easier, IMO, to get a proper feedback sensation of safety when eating traditional home cooked foods made with high quality raw produce. Complex traditional recipes with multiple ingredients and complex flavours are satisfying in a way many more contemporary ways of eating are not.

What I meant by normal was not being so strict/restrictive with your diet
Sorry yes I realise. I was just thinking why so many have to be strict and it's definitely modern food for many. Some might say they are less restrictive but are just overeating. To be less strict and a healthy weight it normally takes a good intuitive body telling us when we're full and being used to stopping eating. That's rare in my circle.

@Marushka82 Thank you very much! I bloody love an avocado, especially with the chilli flakes - nobody else can eat it when I make it though, apparently it's too spicy and I must have an asbestos tongue!

To me 'normal' would be eating a diet to be a normal or healthy weight

The issue I have with that statement is that a lot of us are finding in our forties that we suddenly gain weight despite no increase in food. So then people are having to drastically cut their intake if they want to be the same weight as before. I would rather up my exercise (although I have yet to start this!) than cut my food intake. I don't eat excessively as it is. My portion sizes are very small. My adult DD who is 28 and weighs 7 stone eats twice the size dinner that I do. She eats lunch, I mostly don't. Neither of us snack much. she's out a lot socialising and drinking so, while I do drink, she drinks more than me. Just how much more can I cut down unless I cut everything that gives me any pleasure?

So now I have middle aged spread and I just can't bring myself to care. I don't want to live until I'm 90. I was reading that between the ages of 75 and 84, nearly 30% of women are in a care home. From 85 onwards that leaps up to 65%. Those are pretty high percentages. Living as long as I can is not my goal.

Today was.. poached egg on toast and bacon, again. I love bacon and up until recently i ate it guilt free, as long as it had the fat trimmed off. Now I hear it's full of nitrates and classed as a carcinogen?? Is that right? Anyway that was at around 10am. I had a banana at 1pm and just now I've polished off two big bowls of chicken and veg soup (homemade, I even made the stock from roasted chicken bones/skin. I hear the gelitin (sp??) And other minerals in the bones are very healthy, I just roast it all for a better flavour and to drain the excess fat from the skin)
I felt like I needed this today and had the day at home so I thought why not. It was really tasty and just what I needed. I'm very awear of not getting enough veg in my diet, fruit is ok because I can just grab some but some days I get no veg at all. 😬

Amaryllis haha, I used to think this about kale when I first tried it and I'll admit it's still not my fave thing as it requires faffing, but if you wanted to give it another shot the trick is to sprinkle it with salt, add some olive oil and then massage it. Yes I know this sounds crazy but you just get stuck in and scrunch it with your hands for a few minutes - it will turn a darker green colour and the massage tenderises it which makes it much easier to chew.
Whew, an essay about kale! I used to make an amazing salad with kale, pecans, cranberries, edamame and some delicious dressing - best tasting kale ever :D

I toss the kale in olive oil, salt and cider vinegar and roast it very briefly
I could eat a whole pack like that
It goes crispy

See, snacking on chocolate bars everyday isn't 'normal' in my opinion. But an idea of normal will vary.

My 'normal'

Breakfast - weetabix with milk or porridge and honey

Lunch - one of - salad/ hummus & veggie sticks/soup/salad pitta with a yoghurt and fruit

Dinner - lasagne/curry/stir fry

Snacks of fruit and copious cups of tea!

Chocolate for me is a weekend treat, that said if there are cakes or sweets occasionally in the office, I'll partake but not everyday. I'd be huge if I ate chocolate or cake everyday.

Partly depends on activity levels too I guess.

OK, Marushka salt, olive and a massage it will be Is that a pre-cooking move or does this work magic on (ulp!) raw kale?

It makes it less chewy if you eat it raw. But, you can also massage, sprinkle with herbs, more salt or even parmesan and whack in the oven for 20 ish minutes and it goes crispy, just like Siameasy said - very good snack :D

It's not that I eat chocolate and sweets every day, I really don't. I can see why it comes across that way from the thread but some days I don't really think about it and having nothing but my meals. Especially if we are particularly busy at work.

I just don't deprive myself those few times a week where I want the chocolate bar/slice of cake etc...

In fact I have always found that I eat less junk food when I'm not thinking about dieting/losing weight than when I've been trying as otherwise it's constantly on my mind if I tell myself I can't have it!

I will had cereal a chip butty and a bag of crisp. If I'm hungry later I'll see what's hiding I'm the cupboards

I eat semi healthily. Breakfast toast and fruit, snack fruit or nuts or chocolate. Lunch sandwich but usually a nutritious one and a smoothie. Dinner tonight is chicken enchiladas and salad. Loads of diet coke.
I have a long history of eating disorders and eating super well or super badly triggers it...so though I have an average diet, no, I don't eat normally and doubt I ever will.

@Asta19 I was reading that between the ages of 75 and 84, nearly 30% of women are in a care home. From 85 onwards that leaps up to 65%. Those are pretty high percentages. Living as long as I can is not my goal.

Can you see the irony in your statement?

Most people in care homes are there due to chronic conditions, where at least half or more are a result of lifestyle choices.

That usually means too much food of the wrong type, not enough exercise and smoking.

No one can choose when they die- you could be a very fit 90 yr old like my mum. or, you could be a very unfit 75-80 yr old like some of her friends who have eaten themselves ill, have had hip replacements, have diabetes and heart problems.

They may still live till they are 90, but their quality of life will be awful.

It's not length of life you ought to worry about but quality of life - more people than ever have 10-15 years of terrible life quality (kept alive by modern medicine) but most have brought it on themselves.

Today I had Mac Donald’s for breakfast and have Indian on the way for dinner - the diet starts Monday 😂

It's not length of life you ought to worry about but quality of life - more people than ever have 10-15 years of terrible life quality (kept alive by modern medicine) but most have brought it on themselves.

A morbidly obese relative of mine has had 3 strokes, 2 heart attacks, lung cancer, and type 2 diabetes. He's in a wheelchair now, and has recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver - not through alcohol abuse, but through the sheer amount of fat that built up in his liver over the years.

He's been a smoker since the age of 11, and is now in his late 60s. The lung cancer was a direct result of that. His diet has always been absolutely appalling (deep fried everything, and lots of it), and has caused every single one of his other health problems.

He has zero quality of life. Zero. We're all amazed he's lasted this long. He'll never be a candidate for a liver transplant because he refuses to change his lifestyle.